Sifting and sorting machine



Feb. 3, 1931. L. E. SIMPSON SIFTING AND SORTING MACHINE Filed June 17, 1927 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORf P a" [O A A TTORNEYS 1931- L. E. SIMPSON 91 SIFTING AND SORTING MACHINE Filed June 17, 1927 3 Sheetr-Sheet 2 L g j INVEN A v M y I D I A TTORNEYS Feb. 3, 1931. sm sp 1,791,291

SIFTING AND S ORTING MACHINE Filed June 17, 1927 {Sheets-Sheet 3 19 T TOR/YE Y5 Patented Feb. 3, 1931 LOWE E. SIMPSON, F CINCINNATI, OHIO SIFTING AND SOP-TING MACHINE Application filed June 17,

My invention relates to machines having power agitated screens or sorting tables over which materials are passed.

The object of my invention is generally .6 to provide a mode of support of a table or screen, in machines of the type noted which will control the movement of the materials deposited thereon. I have discovered that by providing for slide or other bearings of a screen or table at desired angles with relation to the general level or inclination of the screen or table, the travel of materials can be quite adequately controlled. Thus in my machine I desire the materials as they fall on the screen or table to be moved fairly rapidly away from the point of deposit, to prevent piling up, and then to travel along until past the middle, at a fair velocity, and then start to slow up, and, move more and more slowly as the tail of the structure is approached.

For convenience in the remainder of this specification and claims, I will refer to the screen by itself, instead of in each instance including the equivalent sorting table, bolting cloth, or whatever type of fiat material support is used in a power agitated machine in which materials are sifted or graded.

One of my objects is the provision of selfaligning slide bearings in spherical seats for 30 the tail ends of the screens of sifting ma chines, which bearings compensate for slight misalignments and distortions of framework or bed, and slight changes of angularity between the screen and its driving and supporting mechanism. In large machines in particular the mill floors are not level, and it is difficult to obtain a permanent level setting for the machines, with the result that improper action is given to the screens and vibrations are set up. My invention of spherical bearings overcomes this disadvantage to a large degree; Also with different degrees of angularity' between the sc een and its supporting means, there is a constant requirement during operation for a self-adjusting bearing.

I accomplish my objects and other advantages to be noted by that certain construc- 50 tion and arrangement of parts to be hereinof the bed, which has an eccentric 2, on which 1927. Serial No. 199,602.

after more specifically pointed out and claimed.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a front end elevation of the device.

Figure 2 is a rear end elevation thereof.

Figure 3 is a side elevation thereof.

Figure 4 is a detail section of one of the spherical, self-aligning bearings for the tail of the screen.

Figure 5 is a detail section of an alternative form of bearing.

I have not shown the details of screen or operating devices except in general indication, in the drawings, as the usual type of actuator, such as is used in machines of the type in question, will serve my purpose. I prefer to employ a compensating rotary prime mover element, located in a case 1, at the head is supported the head end of the screen frame 3, preferably with a ball and socket joint. The bed of the machine is indicated generally at 4, on which bed the case 1 is mounted. By referring to the prime mover as compensating I mean that it carries counterweights (not shown) which overcome as much as possible the tendency of the screen to give areactive countermotion to the bed, and hence to the structure in which the machine is set up.

The screen or series of screens are within the case, and power input for driving the prime mover at 6. The motion imparted to the head end of the screen is rotary and eccentric.

In very large machines there is a tendency of screen frames to rock up and down, and instead of providing for a plurality of straps, to hold down the head corners to the bed, as has been done in the past, I provide a single device which prevents rocking either up or down. My device'consists in a stifi bar 66:, which is connected to the screen frame by a drag link 7, and to the bed by a drag link 8. The drag links are in my specific embodiment of the same type as used in automotive steering gear, and provide for a limited universal movement, but no extension of contraction movement, so that the spacing of the screen frame and the bed remains constant at the head end of the machine.

At the tail end of the machine a post 9 is mounted vertically in base plate 10 on the casting forming the tail frame piece. This post has journaled upon it an arm 11, which is itself pivoted to the bed (in this instance to" a similar post at 12 on the bed). In the particular machine shown this arm 11 confines the path of the screen at the tail end to substantially an end to end movement or reciprocation, so that the screen rotates eccentrically at one end and reciprocates at the other. I give these details as to the motion, not as necessary limitations, but as preferred operative details in screens with which my invention finds its best application.

For a sliding support at the tail end of the frame ll have devised a ball and socket support in which an element thereof has a slidingfunction. In the machine illustrated ll have indicated at 40, 40, a pair of stands for the support of the bearing, which stands have their tops arranged with flanges 41, to act as catch basins for lubricant which escapes thereto. or may be placed therein. In

' have plates 46 bol ted thereto, said plates being arranged for lubrication by means of a grease cup 47, arranged in the cross bar, with a conduit 48 extending down through the base plate, in each instance.

In this construction the blocks remain in place by gravity and the shoes rest and slide upon the blocks, being held in their line of movement by the lever that controls the movement of the tail end of the frame, such as has been described. The face plates may be changed, upon excessive or uneven wear.

By reference to Figures 1 and 4 it is best shown, that the shoes with their face plates are set at a slightly greater angle of declination than that of the screen frame, and that the eccentric at the head end of the machine is more nearly horizontal than the line of declination of the screen frame.

As an alternative structure 1 may provide for standards 20 on the frame, taking the place of the stands 40. On these standards are secured, as by welding, the steel rings 21, which have lubricant trapping channels 22. Felt wiper rings 22a may be mounted about the peripheries of the rings by means of clamping bands 23 or in any other desired wa lllounted over the central portions of the rings, are bearing plates 24, which have depending flanges to engage in the channels 22.

The plates are removable, and are preferably made as castings, of comparatively inexpen sive material.

The slide plates 25 which rest and move on the plates 24 are shaped to enter the spherical bearing member 26. These bearing members have spherical outer surfaces as at 27, and a central upper orifice into which are set the plugs or stoppers 28. The plates 24 engage within the members 26, but are removable, and may be cast out of cheaper materials, than the bearings, as in the instance of the plates 46. The bearings have extended bases 29 which are flat and engage the felt rings 22a.

This structure provides two removable plates, forming the slide, which slide is lubricated from a well 30 formed by the interior of the spherical bearing, the plate 25 having a hole therein, leading, to the bearing surfaces between it and the plate 24. a

The side bars of the screen frame have the internally spherical rings 32 bolted to them as by bolts 33. The particular mode of mounting is non-essential, except that it should be provided so as to leave access to the plugs of the spherical bearing lubricating chambers.

It has been noted that the relative ositions of the rear bearings and the front bearings are such as to give the screen generally a tilt or declination toward the tail end. The spherical bearings permit rocking of the frame on the bearings at the rear, but this rocking is very slight, and the main function of the spherical seat for the screen frame is to compensate for uneveness of the bed, due to improper setting up, or distortions which take place in the bed structure itself.

The angle to the horizontal of the slide surfaces of the rear hearings in the modified form is also slightly greater than the general inclination of the screen as was pointed out as to the firstly described mode of support.

The result of 'these several planes is to speed the movement of materials dropped on the head of the screen and retard them at the tail. Thus the head support being more horizontal than the screen results in a slight lift to the head of the screen, when the eccentric thrusts it then further toward the tail supports. The increased angularity or incline to the tail slides, results in slightly lifting the tail of the screen, when the tail is pulled back nearest to the head of the bed. These slight lifts have a decided effect on materials on the screen, tending to fling them in each instance toward the middle of the screen. This tendency is further applied at the moment, in each instance when inertia of the materials is acting to assist this motion toward the middle of the screen. The lift'is naturally greatest at the ends of the screen which stays in one plane at the middle.

.The speeding of the materials away from the head end avoids a piling up beneath the food hopper or other delivery means, and the retardin of-the flow of tailings'from the tail end of t e screen increases the length of the. treatment at this point, when the materials are better distributed and the retained finer particles are less numerous and harder to screen out.

A variation of the several angul'arities or inclinations can control the materials on the screen to whatever nature of'flow is-desired.

' screen element with relation to the frame ele- Taken to ether with the peculiar 'gyratory motion of sliding at one end in practically a straightline, while revolving with an eccentricat the other end, I obtain an even dis-v tribution of material over the screen, and a full churning about of the materials so as to fully expose all parts to the screen action. My invention contemplates the control of movement of materials on an agitated screen, by means of tail and head supports and general screen disposition, in difi'erent'angular positions with relation to the horizontal and with relation to each other.

I have not described equivalent mechanical structures, but have gone into more or less detail as to the one illustrative embodiment of the machine. I propose to state the novelty inherent in my structure in the claims.

that follow.

Having thus described myinvention,'What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a machine of the character described, the combination with a frame element, and a screen element thereon, means for sliding the ment, and a semi-spherical bearing slide structure intermediate said two elements com- 4. In a machine of the character described, the combination with a frame and a screen slidable with relation thereto, a su porting structure for the screen upon the rame at the tail end of the screen comprising a shoe on the screen, a semi-spherical member upon which the shoe slides, and an internally semispherical member on the frame within which the semi-spherical member is seated, said shoe having a removable face plate thereon, and means mounted on the screen and assing through said face plate for lubricating the under side thereof. v

5. In a machine of the character described, the combination with a frame and a screen slidable with relation thereto, a supporting frame shoe and semi-spherical member remaining in assembly during the operation of the machine by gravity.

'6. In a sifting 'machine and the like, the combination with a screen, means at one end of the screen imparting an oscillatory movescreen, and means for supporting the screen ment in a plane generally parallel with the at the other end thereby controlling the angle of the screen, and a slide bearing for screen at said other end, said bearin of substantial linear dimension in a sing e plane, said plane being at an angle to the angle 'of;

the screen;

prising a hollow semi-sphericalmember on a one of the elements having means around it to form a catch basin for lubricant, a semi-5 spherical block in said hollow s herical memher, said structure on the one e ement having slidable engagement with means on the other element, for the purpose described.

2. In a machine of the character described, the combination with a-frame and a screen'- sphericalmember on the frame within which the semi-spherical member is seated.

3. In a machine of the character described,

the combination with a frame anda screen I slidable with relation thereto, a supporting structure for the screen upon the frame at the tail end ofthe screen comprising a shoe on the screen, a semi-spherical member upon which the shoe slides, and an internally semispherical member on the frame within which the semi-spherical member is seated, said shoe having a removable face plate thereon.

Lows E. smrsom 

